Why do people have middle names? While you're answering this, does it
have some connection to Catholics taking on saint's names at
confirmation?
My middle name is Anne, but so are probably 75% of women Baby Boomer's too.

Thanks,
yesmam

Howdy yesmam-ga,

Middle names actually started off being a second "first" name of honorific
nature.  They could symbolize a battle fought, a tribute to a god, saint or
someone of importance in the family.  They have since become "middle" names.

Catholics taking on saint's names as first and (sometimes multiple) middle
names appears to be an outgrowth of this practice.

They haven't always been around according to this web page maintained by
Trevor James Hudson.
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~murtoa/names.htm

"Middle names weren't used until the 15th century, when a second Christian
name was used as a status symbol by German nobility. In the United States,
after the American Revolution it became the fashion to use the mother's
maiden name as a middle name. Today the middle name is also likely to have
been selected from a favourite ancestor."

The Name Nerds web site points out that it took time to become popular.
http://www.namenerds.com/irish/brigid.html

"In regard to middle names, a convention that came into use in the 17th
century ..."

Why keep middle names around?  A Genealogy.com message posting answers this.
http://www.genealogy.com/rhonda041802.html?Welcome=1084852891

"'Middle names constitute what is almost a separate nomenclature, useful for
minor purposes such as pacifying relations who want their names to live on,
or perhaps genuinely acting as tokens of respect to namesakes,' says Leslie
Dunkling in The Guinness Book of Names. He goes on to point out that middle
names are much like family heirlooms and should be preserved."

This web page maintained by Dan Gamber, Deena Mullininx, and many others
gets a bit more scholarly on the subject.
http://www.s97358565.onlinehome.us/hemminga/give-nam.htm

"The patronymic was replaced as legal identifier after the edict of 1811
by the surname. However the use of patronymics in naming continued in many
families to this day, although others dropped it or started giving second
given names (middle names)."

Not all cultures have middle names, but rather maintain something similar
to the "two first names" tradition.  From a web page by Jerry Boucher.
http://www.usfca.edu/~boucherj/namepage.html

"The two parts of the Korean given name form a single name which corresponds
to the first name of an American, and there is no "middle" name."

More, from the Cornell University "Dear Uncle Ezra" column, referencing the
Encyclopedia Britannica.
http://ezra.cornell.edu/posting.php?timestamp=913266000

"Although the article does not specifically address the middle name per se,
it is easy to see that middle names are pervasive throughout the world, and
came about unofficially because people were not satisfied with two, and
wanted to use naming to denote an important relationship that one person had
to another."

Then you get into two middle names, etc. as "Uncle Ezra" continues.

"The Roman name eventually consisted of three parts:  Marcus Tullius Cicero,
Gaius Julius Caesar.  ... a person might acquire an individual surname, called
an agnomen: Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus was so named because of his
successful war in Africa."

My middle name is "Lee" from the long standing (Southern US, although I am
from the North) tradition of honoring General Robert E. Lee.

If you need any clarification, feel free to ask.


Search Strategy

Google search on: "why middle names"
://www.google.com/search?q=%22why+middle+names%22

Google search on: "middle names" history
://www.google.com/search?q=%22middle+names%22+history

Google search on: "middle names" tradition
://www.google.com/search?q=%22middle+names%22+tradition


Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher

Denco wrote: Middle names actually started off being a second "first"
name of honorific nature.

Is it too late to change my middle name to Google? Anne is sooooo commonplace!

Very, very interesting answer. I have cut and pasted it to an AOL
message BB, and thousands besides Googling Answer Nuts will read it.

Thanks for your extensive research,
Yesmam

My theory is that parents give their children middle names so that,
when the child misbehaves, the parent can yell all three names in an
accusatory fashion: "Harcourt Fenton Mudd, what have you been up to?"

Or perhaps it's to drive the point home when one does something really
well. ("Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor" - later to become "Elizabeth
Alexandra Mary of the House of Windsor, Queen of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of her other realms and
territories, head of the Commonwealth of Nations" or simply "Queen
Elizabeth II" for short)

Dad

"Harcourt Fenton Mudd

That's sooooo creative. Kinda W.A.S.P.y 
I'm looking forward towards Harcourt becoming Elizabeth Alexandra Mary
Windsor's second husband.Harcourt would be a horsey type with a hobby
of collecting antique telescopes.

I was only given a First and a Last Name even though my parents each
had a Middle: Joseph Henry and Elizabeth Ann. Maybe they couldn't
think of a suitable Middle for me.

Both my daughters have Middle Names and we thought that we were being
original in calling the younger 'Samantha Jane'. But 99.9% of all
Samanthas now seem also to be a Jane. Maybe they just sound great
together.

In the UK, it became very fashionable to have double-barrelled
surnames in the Thirties, preferably (but not always) hyphenated. This
was sometimes required to benefit from an estate.

Similarly, in Imperial Russia. So, the painter A N Roussoff (whose
real name was Wolkoff) became Wolkoff-Mouromtzoff to satisify a
condition for getting his hands on the huge Mouromtzoff estate. Of
course, the Bolsheviks were not impressed by such niceties and grabbed
the lot.

In some countries, the notion of a "middle name" is a different one -
culturally as well as legally. In Norway, a "middle name" is, by
nature, a surname but not legally recognised as such for the person in
question. Quite commonly, it could be the maiden name of the mother -
nowawadys it is not uncommon that people upon marriage "exchange"
names to establish a common family name, whereby the wife keeps her
maiden name as a middle name, whilst the husband takes hers as his
middle name.

In this context, a second "first name" is simply that, a second first
name. This might be because so many names in that part of the world
are compsite, and still recognisable as such: "Thorbjörn" - put
together from "Thor" (the norse god" and "björn" - bear; or "Solfrid"
from Sol (sun) and Frid (peace).

Actually, Harcourt Fenton Mudd (more commonly known as Harry Mudd) was
a character from an episode of the original Star Trek series, and his
name was used in that scolding fashion not by his mother, but by an
android replica of his wife.

Aha! I figured it wouldn't be long before a Trekker showed up who
recognized the name "Harcourt Fenton Mudd." And ac67 is quite correct:
the hollering of this tripartite name was done by an android modeled
after Harry Mudd's scary virago of a wife, not by Harry's mother. I
admit having taken some liberties with Star Trek lore (or was it Star
Trek data?)

You are welcome, Yesmam!  Thanks for the 5 stars and nice tip!

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher